Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Orcs Through the Editons from 1st edtion AD&D to 5th edtion D&D.

The orc is an eternal favorite heavy and cannon fodder of
D&D. With each edtion of the game the Orc has been reworked to fit the new
editon. Here’s the stats across the edtions from 1srt edtion aD&D to the new 5th Edtion D&D with my comments after each.

1st Edition AD&D Orc

FREQUENCY:
Common

NO.
APPEARING: 30-300

ARMOR
CLASS: 6

MOVE:
9"

HIT
DICE: 1

%
IN LAIR: 35%

TREASURE
TYPE: Individuals 1; C, 0, Q ( X IO), S in lair

NO.
OF ATTACKS: I

DAMAGE/ATTACK:
1-8 or by weapon type

SPECIAL
ATTACKS: Nil

SPECIAL
DEFENSES: Nil

MAGIC
RESISTANCE Standard

INTELLIGENCE:
Average (low)

ALIGNMENT:
Lawful evil

SIZE:
M (6'+ tall)

PSlONlC
ABILITY: Nil

AttackDefense
Modes: Nil

The traditional orc is a minion of evil, soldiers of the leviathan that
threatens to consume all in warfare. Along with the base stats we get tribal
organization, a little details on elites and others who may associate with orcs
and their nasty breeding habits.

Orcs get a little brighter, they are now of average average
intelligence. We still get the break down of these minions of evil but a little
less detail outside of their elites, their vile breeding habits are not noted.

Orcs got brawny in third edition they changed from the
faceless minions of brutal evil to chaotic brutish raiders of computer warming
fame. Orcs went from being a constant annoyance to a notable threat at low
level 2d4+4 damage at +4 to hit was pretty good even in 3e D&D for a 1 HD
monster. Their alignments changed they are now wild raiders. Less specific information
is given to their habits and organization, everything can produce offspring in
3e D&D which suffered from a sometimes comical half=this-and that syndrome.
They gather in smaller numbers in this edtion but that’s probabky a good thing
as they are pretty tough in the damage output for monsters of their HD. Granted the default stats are for Orc Warriors if you had Orc Rogues, Orc Adepts, or Orc Gardeners the stats would be fairly different in 3rd edition.

4th edition orc from Monster Manual

Orc Raider Level 3 Skirmisher

Medium natural humanoid XP 150

Initiative +5 Senses Perception +1; low-light vision

HP 46; Bloodied23; see also warrior’s
surge

AC17;

Fortitude15, Reflex14, Will12

Speed6 (8 while charging)

Greataxe(standard; at-will) *Weapon

+8 vs. AC; 1d12 + 3 damage (crit
1d12 + 15).

Handaxe(standard; at-will) *Weapon

Ranged 5/10; +7 vs. AC; 1d6 + 3
damage; see also killer’s eye

Warrior’s Surge

(standard, usable only while
bloodied; encounter) *Healing, Weapon

The orc raider makes a melee basic
attack and regains 11 hit

points.

Killer’s Eye

When making a ranged attack, the orc
raider ignores cover and

concealment (but not total
concealment) if the target is within 5

squares of it.

Alignment Chaotic evil

Languages Common, Giant

Skills

Endurance +8, Intimidate +5

Str 17 (+4) Dex15 (+3) Wis10 (+1) Con14 (+3) Int8 (+0) Cha9 (+0)

Equipment

leather armor, greataxe, 4 handaxes

Oh boy…. 46 hp, +8 to hit. And these
are skirmisher orcs, there are details given for minion class (all 1 hp mooks),
warrior Orcs (9th level) and a couple others. ORc skirmisher are darned good with their bows and have the bizzare ability to regain HP when they stick an arrow in someone. This monster is a great
example of why many didn’t care for 4th edition D&D.

5th
edtion Orc from Legacy of the Crystal Shard

Medium
Humanoid (Orc)

Armor Class 13 (studded leather)

Hit Points 11 (2d8 + 2)

Speed 30 ft.

Senses darkvision 60 ft.

Str 14 (+2) Dex 10 (+0) Con 12 (+1)

Int 7 (–2) Wis 11 (+0) Cha 10 (+0)

Alignment chaotic evil

Languages Common, Orc

Traits

Relentless: If the orc takes
damage that reduces it to 0 hit

points, it can make a Constitution
saving throw with a DC of

5 + the damage taken. If the saving
throw succeeds, the orc

drops to 1 hit point instead. If the
orc has only 1 hit point at

the end of its next turn, it drops to
0 hit points.

Actions

Melee
Attack—Greataxe: +4
to hit (reach 5 ft.; one creature).

Hit: 8 (1d12 + 2) slashing
damage.

Ranged
Attack—Shortbow: +2
to hit (range 80 ft./320 ft.; one

creature). Hit: 3 (1d6)
piercing damage.

Encounter Building

Level 3 XP 70

The orc has been toned down. He’s got 11 hp average (2d8+2)
Hit Dice are technically there but have been otherwise dropped from this edition
as a term to describe monsters. These guys are still wild and savage
raider types. Orcs are hard to kill in this version for some odd reason unless
you hit then with massive damage they have a good chance to keep on fighting. They
are running about with pretty fearsome weaponry and are going to be hitting with
it a fair amount of the time.. Orc organization is absent in this write-up but
it’s not a complete monster manual entry at this point. Supposedly this new and
improved orc is useable over a wider range of character levels, so was the 1st
edition orc instead of 10 you used 20,30 or 200. This is not the Orc of old, it might be the
Uruk-Hai but common orcs seem to have departed for the western shore.

7 comments:

This are a couple misconceptions about the 4e Orc that colors part of your assessment of the 5e Orc.

The hit point regen occurs only on a Melee attack, not a Ranged attack. In 4e, Orc Raiders are essentially the Beserkers of the Orc monster group. Their healing power is essentially a 1-round rage (that can only be used once per encounter after having lost half his hit points). Seen through that lens, this isn't a bizarre feature, but a cool combat option. It is like adding a Beserker class level to the monster template ala 3rd Edition. Instead of monster class levels, 4e gave us monster traits and special attacks like these.

Monster traits and special attacks are actually some of the cool features from 4th edition that came to 5e. Traits in 5e like "Relentless" come directly from that 4e design paradigm.

Also, while the hit points appear excessive on the 4e Orc, PC hit point are also ramped up significantly, so this creature is actually relatively average for a 3rd level skirmisher. This is why you can't easily compare 4e to other editions. Offensive and defensive numbers (AC, To Hit, Damage, etc) are on a slightly different scale. Hit Point inflation was a severe problem with 4th Edition... But when you take the Hit Point inflation into consideration, the new 5e orc is roughly equivalent to the 4e skirmisher on the power scale. Note how they both do 1d12 damage as a base.This actually makes the 5e orc more dangerous to 5e PCs than the 4e orc is to 4e PCs... So in 5th Edition, he's not "toned down" at all.

Oops. Do have a mistake in the 4e writeup, I'll get to thta later. Not beinga 4e player at all it still looks like 5thOrc is toned down a bit as he'll go down in only one or two strikes unless he keeps making those saves to stay on his feet. This is not the same orc as 1st, 2nd or even 3rd edition, a solid sword blow always put an orc down in those rules.

It looks to me like the 5ed orc seen here can normally only get a single extra turn: He only gets the save when he is going to be dropped due to damage, what happens at the end of the next turn is a direct change in HP rather than damage.

So it seems that Relentless means that the orc will simply get to make a parting attack before he goes down unless he has some way to get healing right away.

That is not the 5e Orc. That's still playtest. Here's the Starter Set Orc, no "Relentless" but a lil stronger and tougher:AC13 HP15 Speed30 ("Aggressive Trait: bonus action to move toward a foe, basically allowing a double move and hit) Str16 DEX12 CON16 INT7 Wis11 CHA10Intimidation+2 DarkVision ChallengeRating 1/2 GreatAxe +5 (d12+3), Javelin +5 (d6+3) They are described as pig-faced barbarians, pretty old school there.

From a player perspective there are really only 9-11 stats to keep track of: Hit Dice, Initiative, Armor Class, Movement/Speed, Number of Attacks, Damage/Attack, Special Attack, Special Defense, Treasure (and maybe Magic Resistance and Size depending on the edition)

About Me

A RPG player who thinks he has something to share. Discovered wargaming at the age of 9 or so thanks to Avalon Hill. Started playing D&D in the later days of the 70's as one of those annoying kids and currently games with spouse, family and friends.